Planned Parenthood Sued for 'Chilling' Botched Abortion Death in Chicago

The Thomas More Society, a non-profit law firm, filed yesterday an administrative complaint over the death of a 24-year-old woman, who underwent a late-term abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility in Chicago on July 20, 2012.

"We request, respectfully but urgently, that the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation investigate and scrutinize all relevant facts surrounding the death of Tonya Reaves," Tom Brejcha, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Society, said in a statement. "It is IDPR's solemn duty to protect patients from dangerous medical treatments, and Illinois citizens sorely need dependable assurance that Tonya Reaves' tragedy will never be allowed to recur."

The complaint argues that Tonya Reaves, the mother in question, received "unprofessional care" from the licensed physicians in Illinois.

According to the law group, the Planned Parenthood facility where the woman had her abortion was supposed to only offer limited services, such as birth control, abortion pills and emergency contraception, which is different from the dilatation & evacuation (D&E) abortion performed on the 16-weeks pregnant mother.

"Thus these facts suggest that this facility was inadequately equipped and/or staffed to handle either the D&E procedure or complications arising as a result – complications that later led to the patient's demise," the statement positions.

"Any physician taking responsibility for performing surgery in such a sub-par setting, who inflicts the ultimate 'harm' (death) on his or her patient, is not even remotely 'properly qualified or competent' to render such potentially fatal surgical services, which is 'dishonorable, unethical or unprofessional conduct' or 'questioned activities' that flout regulatory norms."

What is more, Planned Parenthood is believed to have known the cause of her heavy bleeding, but failed to inform the caregivers at the hospital, leaving doctors to discover the bleeding nearly six hours after her arrival, by which she had lost more than a liter of blood and it was too late to save her life, said the law firm.

Details emerging from Reaves' autopsy were also troubling, the law society argued, detailing how Reaves did not receive proper emergency medical care. The help that she did receive included large quantities of saline solution, but she was transported to the hospital in a non-emergency vehicle, which Thomas More says sends a "chilling message" of how the patient was "victimized by woefully inadequate emergency care, far from what proper medical standards required in such a grave, exigent situation."

In their formal complaint letter, Thomas More reveal that Reaves' family are also concerned about the circumstance surrounding her death.

Lifesite News noted that if the actions of the physicians are proven to have violated the Medical Practice Act, its medical license can be revoked, and the hospital can face a $10,000 fine per infraction.